Al-Jazeera TV Network Smacks Into Reality
As the US forces were entering the city of Baghdad, the Al-Jazeera network was providing the daily briefing of the Iraqi Information Minister who was announcing the complete destruction of the 'invading forces'. Al-Jazeera chose to report the minister's description of the war as fact to its viewers.
The next day, as US Forces continued to enter Baghdad and Iraqi citizens began tearing down statues of Saddam Hussein, the Al-Jazeera TV network had to suddenly face the reality that its brand of coverage left a lot to be desired. For the first three weeks of the Iraq war, it presented the Iraqi Information Minister news conferences as being the truth about the conflict. His pronouncements of the American and British troops being destroyed throughout Iraq played well to the Al-Jazeera Arab viewers around the world.
Now Arab viewers of Al-Jazeera are asking why the news they received was so distorted. That the Iraqi regime was losing but Al-Jazeera kept telling them that Iraq was fighting and repulsing the 'invaders'. Many Arabs now find Al-Jazeera to have been unreliable in providing them news about the war. The one TV network intended to provide the Arab world uncensored news about the region has lost credibility with many of its regular viewers.
Al-Jazeera has now had to apologize for its distorted coverage. It now stands to have lost credibility within the region it claims to serve. The question is, has Al-Jazeera learned anything from this fiasco. Things such as providing coverage from both sides and not just the 'Arab' point of view. Things such as being critical of sources and checking facts before announcing them as 'facts'. One can only hope so. Al-Jazeera can provide a service to viewers within the Arab world community, but only if it learns from this episode and begins reporting in a more responsible and balanced manner.
04/11/03 ( 371 )
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